


Silence

by dragons_and_angels



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Grief, Mourning, Treat Fic, trick - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-27 23:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8421565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_and_angels/pseuds/dragons_and_angels
Summary: Lee already lost one friend. He wasn't going to lose another.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brachylagus_fandom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brachylagus_fandom/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Тишина(Silence)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9201035) by [Golden_shoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_shoe/pseuds/Golden_shoe)



George was silent now, that was the strangest thing. Before the final battle, Lee had never known George to be properly silent. If he wasn't bouncing ideas off Fred or laughing with Lee and Katie, he was fidgeting and constantly moving. Nothing about him was quiet and to see him now, pale and so diminished, it made something split inside Lee. 

George was sitting on the low stone wall at the back of the garden at the Burrow. Fred, George and Lee had thrown gnomes over that wall so frequently it was hard to pinpoint one time. Lee approached George, making no effort to keep his footsteps quiet. George didn't look round, didn't even look up as Lee sat beside him on the wall, making sure to be on his left side. If he sat on the left side, he would remind himself that he was talking to George. Fred had never lost an ear, never had a dark hole which made Lee feel slightly sick to look at. Fred would remain twenty-one forever, never getting married or growing old. Every day that George grew older was another day he grew away from Fred and if that thought was nearly unbearable for Lee, he couldn't imagine what it was like for George. 

"Aren't you going to say anything or are you just going to stare at me all day?" George's voice was dead, there was no other word for it. 

Lee wanted to make a joke, to make something between them as it was, but nothing would be the same. Never again. But he had words. "I could say something here, something grand and insightful, but is there anything I can say that will make this better?" George turned to look at him then, his eyes as dead as his voice had been. "I could say something about I saw a friend of mine die in the battle and I'm seeing another one die slowly, right in front of my eyes." And George looked away again. Lee was no stranger to grief, but it was one thing that didn't get easier the more experience you had at it. His little brother and mother had been killed in a car accident, leaving Lee with his father and sister, but he had never lost a twin. To lose someone who was pretty much the other half, who you had never lived without, that was out of Lee's experience. 

"When your brother died," George said, "how did it feel?" 

Lee thought over his answer carefully. There was what he should say to help make George feel better and then there was the truth. "It felt like my world had ended," Lee said honestly. "Like my world had stopped and everyone else was continuing on going about their daily lives like there was nothing wrong." He felt the familiar pain in his chest and lump in his throat at the day his mother and brother had gone to the Muggle swimming pool one town away. Lee, at fourteen, had said he was too old for swimming and his sister had just straightened her hair and didn't want to mess it up so neither of them had gone. Both of them later regretted it. His brother wasn't a wizard, inheriting their mother's Muggleness rather than their father's magic, but he loved to hear Lee's stories about Hogwarts. 

Fred and George had known something was wrong when Lee's letters suddenly stopped and when he managed to explain, two days before 1st September because he couldn't face telling them in person, they had been his shield against the world until he was able to deal with it. And now Fred was gone and George was a shell of his former self. 

"You know how people say it gets better and time heals all wounds?" Lee asked suddenly. George didn't answer but Lee was sure he had heard this from some stupid well-meaning person who didn't know what to say and so managed to say the worst cliche possible. "That's a lie. You'll have your first child and it will still hurt that Fred isn't here to see them. But you get used to it." 

"I can't... I can't imagine that right now." George's voice was no longer blank, instead it cracked horribly in the middle and Lee felt like crying. 

"I know." Lee softened his voice. "But it will get to the point where you will think about him and it won't hurt as much. Just take it one thing at a time and don't look too far in the future. First of all we get you eating and showering regularly and then we'll move onto the harder stuff like leaving the Burrow." 

"You miss him too." It wasn't a question but Lee treated it like one. 

"Everyday," he said seriously. "Fred was Fred." Lee shrugged, helpless to describe his best friend any other way. He was irrepressible and the thought of never seeing him again - it still didn't feel like reality yet. 

George looked at him but Lee couldn't read his expression. They spent a few moments staring at each other before it was broken by George moving off the garden wall. "Food and shower but I'm not promising more than that." 

"Being able to sit next to you without having to breathe through my mouth is enough for now," Lee reassured him and was rewarded with George's eyes getting lighter, like he would have smiled if he had been able. 

Molly didn't say anything when the two of them came back inside, simply turned away with tears in her eyes and bustled around getting a meal ready. George didn't smile, didn't talk but he was more animated than he had apparently been in days so Lee would take that as a win. One of his friends was dead, he wasn't going to lose another to his own grief.


End file.
